The costs of preschool inclusion

The purpose of this study was to examine the instructional costs of inclusi ve and traditional noninclusive special education services for the preschoo l children with disabilities. Cost information was collected from five loca l education agencies in different parts of the country that provided inclus ive and traditional special education service options. Within-agency compar isons suggested that inclusive models were generally less expensive or comp arable in cost to traditional forms of special education. Cost features, su ch as salaries, childcare tuition, equipment, materials, transportation, ad ministration, and building costs were associated differently with different models. The difficulty in collecting cost information on noninstructional costs, the relatively mild degree of disabilities of children in the study, and potentially different groups of children enrolled in inclusive and tra ditional models were noted as limitations of this study.